Many brilliant typographers were active in the 1920s, revitalizing the craft. Small presses dedicated to fine printing flourished. Unfortunately, large publishing houses were more interested in quantity instead of quality. Their content, however, was quite exciting during this period which included the Harlem Renaissance writers, the publication of James Joyce's Ulysses, and T.S. Elliott's The Waste Land.

Distribution of books was greatly increased in 1920, with the establishment of the National Association of Book Publishing. The Book-of-the-Month Club was established in 1925; sales of books through the mail greatly expanded the market. However, the "real revolution" was in advertising, not in distribution. Advertising, in regard to the book publishing industry, became "one of the mightiest and most essential factors in the business world."

A major innovation of the era was using photographs in book advertising. Publishers' willingness to spend money on promotion and publicity in the 1920s came to an end with the Crash of 1929 and the start of the Great Depression.

1920

Three important private presses — The Golden Cockerel Press, The Cloister Press, and The Favil Press are founded.

1921

The Deuxieme Congrès National du Livre is held in Paris.

State Publishing Houses are founded in Moscow and Leningrad.

The first edition of Printing Types; their History, Forms, and Use by Daniel Berkeley Updike is printed at his Merrymount Press. This book is an important book on printing history.

1922

Oxford Bibliographical Society is founded.

Claude McKay's Harlem Shadows, the first book of poetry of the Harlem Renaissance, is published.

T.S. Eliot publishes The Waste Land.

1923

The American Institute of Graphic Arts holds its first annual exhibit of "Fifty Books of the Year."

Time magazine is founded by Henry R. Luce and Briton Hadden.

1924

The second phase of the Harlem Renaissance begins; this is a period of interracial collaboration between Zora Neale Hurston's "Negrotarian" whites and the African American Talented Tenth. Charles S. Johnson, new editor of Opportunity, invites young and mostly unknown African American poets and writers to attend a celebration at Manhattan's Civic Club of the sudden outpouring of "Negro" writing, on March 21, 1924.

1925

Alain Leroy Locke edits The New Negro, an anthology of poetry and prose from the Harlem Renaissance.

F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes The Great Gatsby.

The Book-of-the-Month Club is started.

1926

Hugo Gernsback founds Amazing Stories, the first magazine of science fiction.

Beginning of the third phase of the Harlem Renaissance, dominated by the African American artists themselves referred to by Zora Neale Hurston as the "Niggerati".

Nelson Doubleday acquires Literary Guild.

1928

Dard Hunter sets up a hand papermaking mill in Lime Rock, Connecticut, reviving the craft. Turkey adopts Latin script and prohibits the publication of books printed in Arabic characters.

1929

The Pynson Printers of New York, publishes The Decorative Work of T.M. Cleland, a record of the work of an important painter and book designer.